Portrait Photography: Capturing Character
A photographic portrait focuses on depicting a person. Some portraits show only the person’s face, but others show part or all of the person’s body. A good portrait not only captures the person’s appearance but also conveys something about his/her character or personality. Lighting, the person’s pose and where their gaze is directed, props, and backgrounds are some of the ways in which a photographer can convey character.

Gottlieb faced a special challenge because many of his portrait photographs were not posed—they were candid, taken in the course of the musicians’ normal activity.

This professional development activity available through the Library’s TPS Direct Professional Development Builder, which provides access to ready-to-present professional development modules. The goal of the activity is to explore how the perception of a photographer influences the composition of image through the analysis of photographs. The activity uses the Billie Holiday portrait shown above along with three others by Gottlieb and one by Van Vechten others in addition to comments from Mr. Gottlieb and background information on both photographers. Although written as a teacher professional development module, this activity can certainly be used with students.

Below are some additional resources to expand the activity using additional photographs of Holiday, Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, and other jazz singers. It could also be interesting to contrast the photographers’ celebrity portraits to portraits of the photographers themselves: Gottlieb portraits, Van Vechten self-portraits.